Glory to the Father
Do we need God? This question is highly controversial at
this time in our world.
I believe we do for two main reasons. One is the analogia entis. This is Latin for the
analogue of being. When the first telephone was invented by Bell , he did it by converting sound waves
into electric impulses and back again, using two electromagnets fitted with
flexible diaphrams that vibrated on a principle of equivalence. Thus the
electric impulses were an analogue of the sound waves. In the same manner we
have analogue TV, which can now be replaced by digital TV that works according
to digital signals across a spectrum of the electromagnetic waves of the
universe. As regards our being, it is not exactly the same kind of being as the
Being of God. It is more like an analogue of it. But one thing is for sure: our
being cannot survive for long unless it preserves the principle of equivalence
to the Being of God. If we equivalate to the Being of God, we become more and
more real. If we don't, we become less and less real until final death of our
personality. That means we must do the Will of God in order to become more real
so that our personality becomes indestructible, and death of the body makes no
difference: it is just a blip on the radar screen of life. For this reason Saint Paul said:
"…and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our Faith." By
itself, mortal life can give only mortality. But, through Faith in God, we can
become immortal as regards our personality. Actually, we die many times, changing
our bodies and changing our minds. But it is our personality that endures
forever, precisely because personality is the highest attainment of spirit,
and, therefore the highest attainment of God Himself, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. And personality is given to you directly by God the Father, Who is the
Primeval God and ancestor in eternity of the Eternal Son and the Holy Spirit,
made infinite and eternal co-equal partners by the Will of the Father. This personality,
combined with the indwelling prepersonal spirit of the Father, is what makes
all of us bi-gendered sons of God.
The other reason is the idea of the great philosopher of the
thirteenth century AD, Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican monk. He revealed that in
our relationship with God, by ourselves we are nothing and can do nothing. We
need His grace to activate, galvanize, and energize our positive spiritual
faculties. First let me explain that both mind and matter/energy come from
spirit. Matter/energy is controlled by mind, and mind is controlled by spirit.
Matter/energy is chaotic unless it is co-ordinated with spirit by mind. Mind is
the arena fulfilled by understanding meanings, while spirit is the arena of
eternal values and purposes, the arena of truth. There is an overlap between
all these, but the motive power always comes from the higher arena of reality.
At all levels the motion of cosmos is under either the direct control or
indirect over-control of God the Father, Who is everywhere present by means of
the Infinite Spirit, and Omnipotent. The Infinite Spirit, although identified
with the Holy Spirit in His capacity as Conjoint Actor, God of Action, or God
In Action, also includes the Infinite Spirit of the Father as well as of the
Eternal Son. This is the Hebrew concept of the Ruah, or the 'Breath of God'.
Thomas Aquinas envisaged two type of grace, prevenient and
efficacious. Prevenient grace is God's answer to the prayer "lead us not
into temptation, but deliever us from evil". For example He can make you
fail an examination because He foresees that it will lead you to a college
situation where you will be unhappy, and instead He give you a happy life as a
small shop-keeper. That is prevenient grace. Efficacious grace means that He
gives you certain talents and opportunities, inspirations and practical help
whereby you can accomplish a definite mission in His service. Both these types
of grace are more easily granted if we believe and pray. That is why Jesus
said: "Be not faithless but believing." It is true that grace is
often, in fact always, gratis data,
but Jesus also said that if we bother or plague the Father with our prayers, He
will always give grace in the end. That is because we are all spiritually equal
in His sight, and He cannot refuse to one what He has granted to another under
the same terms and conditions. He is the very soul of fairness, which is the
very heart of His righteousness.
So prayer is obviously necessary for us. Therefore we should
understand what exactly prayer consists of. For this purpose I now quote from
the Urantia Book.
1) True
prayer should contribute to social, moral, or spiritual values:
(994.4)
91:0.4 The Toda tribe of India now observes this practice of praying to no one
in particular, just as did the early peoples before the times of religious
consciousness. Only, among the Todas, this represents a regression of their
degenerating religion to this primitive level. The present-day rituals of the
dairymen priests of the Todas do not represent a religious ceremony since these
impersonal prayers do not contribute anything to the conservation or
enhancement of any social, moral, or spiritual values.
2)
Prayer develops naturally in humans, step by step:
3. Prayer and the
Alter Ego—(it starts as "wish expression")
(996.7)
91:3.1 Children, when first learning to make use of language, are prone to
think out loud, to express their thoughts in words, even if no one is present
to hear them. With the dawn of creative imagination they evince a tendency to
converse with imaginary companions. In this way a budding ego seeks to hold communion
with a fictitious alter ego. By this technique the child early learns to
convert his monologue conversations into pseudo dialogues in which this alter
ego makes replies to his verbal thinking and wish expression. Very much of an
adult’s thinking is mentally carried on in conversational form.
Gradually the alter ego becomes infused
with a concept of the divine:
(996.8) 91:3.2 The early and primitive form of prayer was
much like the semimagical recitations of the presentday Toda tribe, prayers
that were not addressed to anyone in particular. But such techniques of praying
tend to evolve into the dialogue type of communication by the emergence of the
idea of an alter ego. In time the alter-ego concept is exalted to a superior
status of divine dignity, and prayer as an agency of religion has appeared.
Through many phases and during long ages this primitive type of praying is
destined to evolve before attaining the level of intelligent and truly ethical
prayer.
Slowly the idea of the divine evolves into
a concept of true spiritual value:
(997.1) 91:3.3 As it is conceived by successive generations
of praying mortals, the alter ego evolves up through ghosts, fetishes, and
spirits to polytheistic gods, and eventually to the One God, a divine being
embodying the highest ideals and the loftiest aspirations of the praying ego.
And thus does prayer function as the most potent agency of religion in the
conservation of the highest values and ideals of those who pray. From the moment
of the conceiving of an alter ego to the appearance of the concept of a divine
and heavenly
Father, prayer is always a socializing, moralizing, and
spiritualizing practice.
Finally it becomes a
dialogue with the Person of the Eternal Father of all persons;
(997.2) 91:3.4 The simple prayer of faith evidences a mighty
evolution in human experience whereby the ancient conversations with the
fictitious symbol of the alter ego of primitive religion have become exalted to
the level of communion with the spirit of the Infinite and to that of a bona
fide consciousness of the reality of the eternal God and Paradise Father of all
intelligent creation.
3) Prayer is an
entirely personal, spontaneous expression of your attitude towards spirit.
This is what Jesus
said about prayer:
(1618.6) 144:2.2 “Prayer is entirely a personal and
spontaneous expression of the attitude of the soul toward the spirit; prayer
should be the communion of sonship and the expression of fellowship. Prayer,
when indited by the spirit, leads to co-operative spiritual progress. The ideal
prayer is a form of spiritual communion which leads to intelligent worship.
True praying is the sincere attitude of reaching heavenward for the
attainment of your ideals.
Such prayer comes out from an awareness of the Presence of God
everywhere and in all things, especially at the centre of our own mind and
heart. We feel that Almighty God is everywhere present and knows every hair on
our head. Not a sparrow can fall to the ground, not a leaf of a tree can move
without the knowledge of the Eternal Father. We slowly come to understand that
"God is a Spirit, and seeketh such to adore Him". So it is written in
the Book of Wisdom of Solomon. We gradually come to know that we also have a
spirit, which is really a part of His spirit in us. But, now, by reading the
Urantia Book we also know that the Almighty Father is also the sole Source of
all matter/energy. He is a Spirit that is DOMICILED always in a material
environment, and so all spirits are DOMICILED in material environments. He has become
OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN. And we are His children and heirs to His Kingdom
of Heaven.
Such knowledge banishes all fear and gives us joy and trust
in God and in all of life, for all of it belongs to Him and to us. For "it
has pleased your Father to give you the Kingdom."
So, for me the best prayer is a joyful song. For this
meeting I have made a new song. It is not only my ears or tongue that give vent
to this song, but my whole being. I sing this prayer with my whole heart, soul,
mind and strength. It pierces the clouds and the stratosphere and blasts on
forever in the circle of Infinity. It shatters despair and replaces it with
Hope. It shatters darkness, and replaces it with Light. It shatters doubt and
replaces it with a certain intuition of ultimate meaning and value. It is both
my song and my life. Now I ask all you souls trapped in the Etheric plane to
sing this song with me. Sing along with me. It will take you onward to your
great immortal destiny.
For my song I have taken the melody of Pomp and Circumstance
by Edward Elgar, but I have changed the words of 'Land of Hope and Glory' into
the words of my own heartfelt prayer. My prayer is both in my words and in the
music of Elgar, which is exactly the way I feel the meaning of the words. Now I
will play a video of an orchestra for the melody, and I will sing the words
with you, and I ask all who can to sing along with me to do so. These are the
words:
GLORY TO THE FATHER,
GLORY TO THE SON,
GLORY TO THE SPIRIT,
HOLY THREE IN ONE.
WIDER STILL AND WIDER
MAY YOUR KINGDOM GROW;
IT WILL LAST FOREVER,
WE YOUR CHILDREN KNOW;
IT WILL LAST FOREVER,
WE YOUR CHILDREN KNOW.
You see, this is very simple. It is not great poetry, or
great philosophy. It is just a simple cry of the heart of a mortal man trying,
with gratitude, to worship his God. May He bless you all, and keep you, His
children, His sheep and lambs, and carry you all to heaven in His almighty
arms. Nothing else really matters.
I suppose someone may want to sue me for breach of
intellectual property rights. That's okay, but they should know that I have no
money of my own, and, if I go to jail, at least I can hope not to starve.
Signed at Malbazar on Friday June a5,2012 John Robert Thwaytes
